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So from going into KC+ for about 4 years now I've been pondering the question, "How are rooms being monitored? Are they being watched 100% of the time? If so, how do they quite watch ALL the rooms?"

Now I have observed some things over the 4 years I've been in KC+, here's my answer...I DO NOT think rooms are quite being monitored 100% of the time. Now before all of you start coming at me saying, "What are you talking about? Of course rooms are being watched 100% of the time!" Here are all my reasoning's...2009-2011? (before the silencing system)
When the red letter system was in place (It was great by the way! I truly miss it) everyone Knew what phrases and words that weren't acceptable. I remember every 10 or 40 minutes a reminder would pop up saying the room was being watched and to follow the rules (During this time I knew the rooms were being watched) I had no problem with that. Now as we advance to the end of 2011-2013This had to be the most high traffic thing or however you say it in people complaining of being banned forever. Now to everyone this seemed kind of unusual. No one has heard of users getting banned forever left and right, something had to be going on. Either with how the system was, or if people were not just following the rules or if it had to do with the Staff being told to monitor differently. Something was up. I remember there were threads posted up frequently in this section to avoid the KC+ since the heaviest punishments were being issued to users which was forever.

Then Ganz had the huge update to the clubhouse.They removed the option to pick any room, which no one was happy about at all. My guess was they just want to pile people into rooms so they could watch the rooms better since it was kind of impossible to watch every single user. No one liked being piled into a different room or not being able to see all of their friends all together. But everyone dealt with it.Finally...here's where my suspicions and questions began.
When Ganz had put in the silencing system...yes the horrid, in-efficient, unfair, strange system of monitoring phrases and words. I don't think many people like this system at all, but there are not any signs of Ganz changing it back to red letters. Once this system was in place people were starting to get silenced TONS, whether it was for a minute, a day, forever? There new system wasn't working properly. Yes, its been updated a little better to prevent silencing that shouldn't happen. My question to this is, why did Ganz insert a brand new system when they have banning? Is it to keep users safer? If that's the case, how does it? They have staff monitoring the room right? So why would they need a system to tell users they aren't following the rules. My other guess was, is it so staff members don't have to constantly watch rooms all the time? Is it a special aid they have to help them out? The entire silencing system is just bizarre to me.

I also haven't seen so many reminders like I did in the past about the room being monitored or watched. What does that mean? Are rooms being watched and they just aren't telling us anymore? I mean it's a kids site so they have to remind the "kids" to follow the rules at some point whether or not users are following the rules.About banning If rooms are being watched how come some users aren't being banned right on the spot sometimes if they are CLEARLY breaking the rules such as swearing, talking about other sites, ect.)

Plus, why does Ganz need a report system? There are 10 users or less in a room. I think the report function get's abused a lot since it can spam their system. (Has nothing to do with the topic, but I think if someone is going to report another user they can only report them once!)
If rooms are being watched, they shouldn't have a problem with catching those breaking the rules.
Finally, I've heard that customer service has been taken away. People can no longer call in to see why they are banned or silenced. How can someone learn to fix a mistake if they don't even know what they did? It's like sending a child to their room and not telling them why. Or it's like a police officer pulling over a driver and giving them a ticket without telling them what they did wrong on the road. Is it that Ganz just doesn't wanna deal with users complaining about bans and silences?
So many questions, so many unanswered. What do you guys think?

Oh I agree that the rooms aren't being monitored all of the time. I think that would probably be too expensive to have someone watching all the rooms 24/7. I think people get caught if someone happens to be watching, but I think they mainly rely on people who report and once they review the chat logs.

I agree that they need to have a way to let people know what they did. Other games I've played have emailed you when you said something wrong with the chat log attached to the email showing you what you did. I think they should at least kinzpost a message with that information.

I have to admit I've never wondered that about whether or not they really where watching the rooms. But like you said, if they are, then why don't the people who are obviously breaking the rules get banned on time? Why do the employees 'watching' wait? Sometimes it's an instant ban, but still...

Their 'new and improved' Clubhouse really needs revamped...
like MAJORLY.

Interesting. I'd like to take a shot at answering, although I have not been on the site nearly as long as yourself. I've actually only held an account on WW since the beginning of this year, but based on experiences with other corporate owned social networks and your description here, I think you may be close to the answer. There's no possible way KC+ rooms are monitored completely all at once 100% of the time. Moderators would be paid employees and this is a very large website which has expanded continuously since KC+ would have been introduced. There's a lot of people using the site and no possible way to babysit everyone at every moment. Like any website which has grown and evolved organically, I'm sure it has been a journey of trial and error to find what works best and keep up with technologies available, especially having this site geared towards minors, they need to find systems that ensure some level of safety and allow parents to feel safe to have their children using the site. The original system does sound the most effective, but my guess is, it still took a large amount of monitoring and staff time, members may have been finding ways around the red letter system to still abuse the site in some way, or it just became too archaic and outdated. Whatever the reason, it came time for change, the corporation was finding it ineffective in some way, either too expensive, too demanding, or some other reason. So next you say came the 'lifetime bans'. I think you may be right that they decided to make a change when the clubhouse was updated and quickly realized their solution wasn't working. So this was the question i wanted to try to answer:

My question to this is, why did Ganz insert a brand new system when they have banning? Is it to keep users safer? If that's the case, how does it? They have staff monitoring the room right? So why would they need a system to tell users they aren't following the rules. My other guess was, is it so staff members don't have to constantly watch rooms all the time? Is it a special aid they have to help them out? The entire silencing system is just bizarre to me.

I would guess Ganz introduced the new system to avoid banning as many members as they were. Ganz is a company, their goal is to make money, with every member they ban, they lose a paying customer. They have dedicated customers who are invested into this site, they have all paid to play in some way. They've bought pets, memberships, estore points, accessories, etc. If they turn those paying customers away, they lose business and traffic to the site. Silencing is a way they can correct the members behavior while still maintaining their business and keep them playing. That is how they earn their profit. So, as ineffective as the new system may seem, iit allows them to maintain players, rather than turn away repeat customers, and does keep that member from abusing the chat feature if they are silenced.

That would be my guess anyway, based on how I understand it.
Also, I've never used KC+, so I could be way off. I'm happy in my own little ww world with pre-selected phrases like 'Great outfit!' and 'You look fantastic!', that's good enough for me.

Random, I think I know who you speak of when you say people cursing, etc. .

I agree. I see people breaking the rules all the time but they are there every day. My guess is they have 20 accounts so that's why it's no big deal to them if they get banned or silenced for a month or whatever.

Another theory is that they're just too immature to care but I guarantee if webkinz didn't exist anymore they would go insane or be really unhappy.

I like your post, it's very well thought out and organized.

I've heard that webkinz is watching all the time, even when they say "the room is being monitored". That could be an automated thing too who knows. Like, if the computer picks up too many words that are in their invisible dictionary of inappropriate words it automatically says that the room is being watched. Since silencing and bans are computer automated supposedly who knows, the room being watched could be too. I can't imagine they have Ganz employees sitting in front of the computer from the time the clubhouse opens until it closes.

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